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Private Communication

Letters sealed with sealing wax are rare today – the keynote is quite good though.

But also the ordinary letter has, since the rise of the Internet, lost its predominance for written communication.

What we use today are mails, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook.. And the vast amount of them are sending without “envelope” never mind seals. Like a modern form of a picture post card.

There are good reasons to see a value in private communication.

It’s personal. It’s private. And it’s no one’s business but yours. You may be planning a political campaign, discussing your taxes, or having a secret romance. Or you may be communicating with a political dissident in a repressive country. Whatever it is, you don’t want your private electronic mail (email) or confidential documents read by anyone else. There’s nothing wrong with asserting your privacy. Privacy is as apple-pie as the Constitution.

Philip Zimmermann – the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)

Keep in mind that unencrypted content is readable by everybody. Ask yourself if you can ensure that only the receiver can read your message – if you can’t: it’s not secure.

If you want postal privacy you have to take care of it yourself!

And there is the encryption technology available for everybody. Probably the main reason why encrypted mails have not gained more ground is the simple fact of convenience. I strongly encourage everyone to use encryption on all kinds of communication.